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Frysinger 
Some  Psychic  Problems 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT 


A  friend  has  made  it  possible  for  the 
author  to  present  this  brochure  to  a 
limited  number  of  those  whom  he  holds 
in  affectionate  regard. 


/ON 

PSYCHIC 

PROBLEMS 


^ 


W.  MASLIN  FRYSINGER 


fe^ 


'"Astra  castra,  Numen  lumen' 


Ye  Scimilar  Print  Shop 

HMldsbiirq.      -      California 

1919 


6lr 


A  WORD  OF  APOLOGY 

At  the  age  of  almost  fourscore  years  I  still 
indulge  in  two  forms  of  recreation — following 
the  streams  which  God  has  made,  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  communing  with  nature  and  its  Author, 
occasionally  capturing  a  piscatory  prize  as  a 
variation  from  this  assured  experience  of  out- 
door enjoyment;  and  following  the  man-made 
streams  of  literature,  for  the  pleasure  and 
profit  to  be  derived  from  communing  with  other 
minds,  comparing  my  own  views  of  truth  with 
theirs,  and  occasionally  drawing  forth  some 
suggestive  idea  giving  me  a  new  conception  of 
duty  or  destiny.  The  contents  of  this  tomelet 
are  the  results  of  one  of  these  literary  excur- 
sions— nothing  more — unless  in  some  decree 
they  have  been  prompted  by  the  soul-feeling 
which  Rupert  Brooke  voices  in  poetic  prayer: 

"O  Thou, 
God  of  all  long  desirous  roaming, 
Our  hearts  are  sick  of  fruitless  homing, 


938" 


And  crying  after  lost  desire. 
Hearten  us  onward!    as  with  fire 
Consuming'  dreams   of  other  bliss. 
The  best  Thou  givest,  giving  this 
;  Sufficient  thing — to  travel  still 

Over  the  plains,  beyond  the  hill,. 
Unhesitating  through  the  shade, 
Amid  the  silence  unafraid. 
Till,  at  some  sudden  turn,  one  sees 
Against  the  black  and  muttering  trees, 
Thine  altar,  wonderfully  white, 
Among  the  Forests  of  the  Night." 

In  the  multitude  of  my  thoughts  within  me. 
I  have  endeavored  to  hold  to  the  inspiring 
motto  on  the  title  page,  "The  stars  my  camp, 
the  Deity  my  light." 


SOME  PSYCHIC  INQUIRIES 

Now  that  man  is  being  studied  from  a  psy- 
chic standpoint  as  never  before,  questions  which 
have  always  been  of  transcendent  importance 
are  taking  on  new  meaning  and  appealing  to 
the  human  intellect  with  added  force — ques- 
tions which  involve  both  the  nature  and  the 
destiny  of  man. 

I. 

The  Question  of  a  Dual  Nature 

Are  man's  body  and  what  we  call  his  spirit 
distinct  and  separate,  the  immaterial  entity 
simply  using  the  material  organism  as  a  ve- 
hicle of  physical  and  mental  activity?  Or,  is 
what  we  call  the  spirit  but  a  manifestation  of 
the  functional  effects  of  the  living  material 
organism  as  flame  is  a  manifestation  of  the 
chemical  processes  which  fuel  undergoes  when 


it  burns,  and  will  the  spirit  cease  to  exist  when 
the  body  undergoes  decomposition  as  the  flame 
dies  when  the  fuel  is  consumed  1  "Is  thought, ' ' 
as  says  Herbert  Spencer,  ' '  only  phosphorus  ? ' ' 

Those  who  have  studied  man  from  a  materi- 
alistic standpoint  only  deny  that  he  has  a  dual 
nature,  contending  that  physical  science  will 
account  for  all  phenomena  that  human  nature 
manifests,  mind  included.  Thus  Huxley,  while 
admitting  that  there  are  inexplicable  phenom- 
ena of  an  immaterial  nature,  especially  con- 
sciousness, makes  psychology  merely  "the  or- 
der of  mental  phenomena,"  and  as  for  there 
being  anything  like  a  spirit  in  man,  "a  some- 
thing that  he  carries  about  with  him  under  his 
hat,"  he  ridicules  the  idea.  There  are  a  few 
writers  who  go  to  the  opposite  extreme,  like 
John  King,  who  assert  that  there  is  no  real  ex- 
istence but  spirit,  and  regard  matter  as  a  mere 
phantasmagoria  (Berkleianism).  All  such 
merely  intellectual  speculations  simply  leave  us 
in  a  maze  of  mystery  because  lacking  founda- 
tion of  fact.    Huxley  himself  defines  Science 


as  "accurate  knowledge,"  and  such  knowledge 
is  to  be  obtained  only  from  facts. 

One  reason  why  materialistic  philosophy  has 
so  largely  dominated  scientific  thought  is  that 
until  recently  physical  facts  have  been  made 
the  first  and  only  subjects  of  scientific  observa- 
tion. Now  that  psychic  phenomena  are  being 
scientifically  investigated  their  reality  and  im- 
portance are  becoming  recognized.  Dreams, 
somnambulism,  telepathy,  hypnotism,  mental 
suggestion,  and  other  peculiar  experiences,  as 
well  as  normal  mental  operations,  are  being  ac- 
cepted as  facts  which  cannot  be  explained  by 
man's  material  organization. 

As  to  dreams,  Benjamin  Franklin  said,  "I 
am  often  as  agreeably  entertained  by  them  as 
by  the  scenery  of  an  opera."  This  is  remark- 
able only  in  showing  that  dreams  attracted  tlie 
attention  of  a  mind  like  his,  but  there  are  on 
record  hundreds  of  cases  where  dreams  were 
of  a  most  remarkable  character.  It  is  a  well 
authenticated  fact  that  Coleridge's  poem  en- 
titled "Kubla  Khan,"  which  Swinburne  calls 


"for  absolute  melody  and  splendor  the  first 
poem  in  the  language,"  was  composed  during 
a  dream.  Almost  as  marvelous  is  an  experi- 
ence which  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott  relates  in  his 
"Reminiscences."  He  was  asked  to  preach 
before  the  National  Prison  Reform  Association, 
but  the  week  previous  he  had  no  time  what- 
ever for  preparation.  On  Saturday  night  he 
went  to  bed  without  text  or  sermon,  anticipat- 
ing a  humiliating  failure.  "And  then,"  he 
says,  "I  tried  to  sleep.  Did  I?  I  do  not  know. 
I  only  know  that  in  a  very  few  moments  I  sud- 
denly awoke  to  consciousness  with  my  subject, 
my  text,  and  my  sermon  in  my  mind. ' '  And  the 
next  morning  he  preached  the  sermon,  which 
made  such  an  impression  that  it  was  published 
far  and  wide  "as  a  new  and  spiritual  defini- 
tion of  the  essential  principle  of  penology — 
fitting  the  penalty,  not  to  the  crime,  but  to  the 
criminal."  Mr.  Lincoln  underwent  a  somewhat 
similar  experience.  The  late  Dr.  Hill  of  Buf- 
falo, N.  Y.,  says  that  as  a  member  of  the  Sani- 
tary Commission,  during  the  Civil  War,  he  con- 


10 

gratuiated  the  great  President  on  having  origi- 
nated such  a  great  benevolence.  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied:  '*You  must  carry  your  thanks  to  a 
higher  Being.  One  stormy  night  I  tossed  on  my 
bed  unable  to  sleep,  as  I  thought  of  the  terrible 
sufferings  of  our  soldiers  and  sailors.  I  spent 
an  hour  in  prayer  to  God  for  some  method  of 
relief,  and  he  put  the  Sanitary  Commission  in 
ni}-  mind  with  all  its  details  as  distinctly  as 
though  the  instructions  had  been  written  out 
by  a  pen  and  handed  to  me."  Both  of  these 
cases  seem  to  give  some  confirmation  to  the 
assertion  made  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
that  dreams  do  not  always  attend  the  condition 
of  sleep. 

Somnambulism  is  but  another  form  of  dream 
phenomena.  As  has  been  said,  "The  somnam 
bulist  acts  his  dream."  Curious  cases  of  this 
nocturnal  habit  are  so  numerous  that  it  is  hard 
1>'  necessary  to  quote  any.  One  characteristic 
of  somnambulistic  performances  is  that  they 
usually  display  more  of  method  than  do  ordi- 
nary dreams.     In  Pennsylvania,  near  a  former 


11 

liome  of  the  writer,  an  intelligent  lady,  the  wife 
of  a  farmer,  was  given  to  what  is  popularly 
called  "sleep-walking."  In  these  unconscious 
movements  she  would  usually  go  about  accus- 
tomed tasks.  Thus  at  one  time  she  arose,  at- 
tired herself  completely,  went  from  the  house 
to  the  barn,  harnessed  a  horse  and  hitched  him 
to  a  wagon,  arranged  a  load  of  produce  of  va- 
rious kinds,  and  was  about  to  start  for  the  mar- 
ket she  attended  in  a  town  several  miles  dis- 
tant, when  she  was  intercepted  by  her  husband, 
and  was  astonished  beyond  measure  to  find  it 
was  about  midnight.  Such  incidents  are  com- 
mon. 

Telepath}^  has  an  apt  illustration  in  an  ex- 
perience of  John  Muir,  related  in  his  "First 
Summer  in  the  Sierra."  While  encamped  on 
the  mountain  above  the  Yosemite  Valley  he 
was  suddenly  possessed  with  the  notion  that 
his  friend.  Prof.  J.  D.  Butler,  of  the  University 
of  Wisconsin,  was  below  him  in  the  valley.  He 
im.mediately  attempted  the  descent  to  seek  the 
friend  whose  presence  he  felt  only  in  a  strange, 


12 

telepatliic  way,  but  was  compelled  to  return 
by  the  approach  of  night.  The  next  day  he 
made  his  way  into  the  valley,  and  found  his 
friend,  although,  save  for  this  strange  feeling, 
he  says,  ' '  I  had  not  the  slightest  hope  of  seeing 
him.  Strange  to  say,  he  had  just  entered  the 
valley  by  way  of  the  Coulterville  trail,  and  was 
coming  up  the  valley  past  El  Capitan  when  his 
presence  struck  me.  This  seems  the  one  well- 
defined  marvel  of  my  life  of  the  kind  called 
supernatural."  Wm.  T.  Stead  narrates  many 
such  experiences,  and  they  could  be  multiplied 
indefinitelv. 

That  hypnotism  and  mental  suggestion  liave 
been  demonstrated  to  be  helpful  methods  in  the 
treatment  of  disease  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
"Suggestive  Therapeutics"  has  been  endorsed 
by  authority  even  as  high  as  the  British  Medi- 
cal Association,  as  well  as  eminent  members  of 
the  medical  profession  in  our  own  country, 
among  them  Dr.  T.  Weir  Mitchell  of  interna- 
tional reputation. 

Dr.  Lewellyn  F.  Barker,  Professor  of  Clyni- 


13 

eal  Medicine  at  Johns  Hopkins  Universtiy,  is 
actively  engaged  in  promoting  the  establisli- 
ment  of  psycopathic  hospitals  for  the  sole 
treatment  of  mental  disorders,  and  his  efforts 
are  being  sanctioned  by  the  medical  profession 
throughout  the  country.  In  foreign  countries 
there  are  many  such  institutions. 

Peculiar  mental  phenomena,  exhibiting  the 
power  to  deal  almost  miraculously  with  fixed 
laws,  such  as  govern  mathematics,  astronomy, 
music,  etc.,  add  to  the  mysteries  which  no  ma- 
terial causes  can  explain.  Zera  Colburn  is 
often  referred  to  as  a  phenomenal  prodigy.  At 
the  age  of  six  he  could  neither  write  nor  cipher, 
yet  would  unhesitatingly  answer  most  difficult 
arithmetical  questions.  George  Bidder,  son 
of  a  Devonshire  farmer,  at  the  age  of  twelve, 
could  answer  in  one  minute  complicated  mathe- 
matical problems  even  when  involving  astro- 
nomical calculations.  Jedediah  Buxton,  an- 
other English  lad,  could  also  work  out  almost 
instantaneously  the  most  complex  problems. 
The  eminent  scientists,  Arago,  Libri,  and  La- 


14 

<3roix,  of  Paris,  examined  Vito  Mangiamele,  son 
of  a  Sicilian  peasant,  eleven  years  old,  and  were 
astounded  at  liis  solution  of  geometrical  prob- 
lems as  rapidly  as  the}"  could  state  them.  A 
.more  recent  example  is  that  of  Reuben  Field, 
a  Negro,  who  died  at  the  county  farm  near 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  in  1915.  He  was  altogether 
illiterate,  yet  was  able  to  solve  the  most  intri- 
cate mathematical  questions  propounded  by 
scientists,  to  whom  he  was  an  inexplicable 
wonder.  Prodigies  in  music  as  well  as  mathe- 
matics have  frequently  appeared.  Blind  Tom 
being  a  notable  example.  In  all  of  these  cases, 
remarkable  as  have  been  their  performances, 
not  one  has  been  able  to  give  the  least  expla- 
nation of  the  process  by  which  the  wonderful 
results  were  accomplished.  Blind  Tom,  in  fact, 
was  an  idiot. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  physical  sci- 
ence utterly  fails  to  account  for  phenomena 
such  as  we  have  described.  The  cases  we  have 
cited,   of   dreams,   of   somnambulism,   of   tele- 


15 

patliy,  of  hypnotism  and  mental  suggestion, 
are  attested  by  such  eminent  and  well  qualified 
witnesses  that  these  phenomena  are  lifted  out 
of  the  realm  of  superstition  into  that  of  psycho- 
logical investigation.  Such  investigation,  how- 
ever, at  the  outset,  is  like  the  exploration  of  a 
new  world.  Dr.  E.  W.  Scripture,  a  learned 
authority,  says  that  modern  scientists  are  as 
little  acquainted  with  the  philosophy  of  dreams 
as  was  the  primitive  man.  Little  more  can  be 
said  as  to  the  other  classes  of  phenomena  we 
have  named.  Of  the  peculiar  cases  of  almost 
supernatural  performance  by  illiterates  least 
of  all  is  known,  indeed  nothing.  What  has  been 
done,  in  the  way  of  experiment  and  theorizing, 
is  sufficient  to  show  that  the  tendency  of  meta- 
physical thought  is  toward  the  abandonment  of 
the  study  of  man  as  possessing  only  body  and 
mind  and  the  adoption  of  the  Scriptural  and 
more  suggestive  designation  of  his  dual  nature 
as  the  natural  and  the  spiritual,  a  designation 
which  is  no  less  rational  because  it  is  Script- 
ural.     Materialism    and  the  consciousness  of 


16 


normal  and  super-normal  experiences  can  never 
be  reconciled.  In  his  famous  Belfast  address, 
Tyndall  said:  "The  phenomena  of  conscious- 
ness is  a  rock  on  which  materialism  must  in- 
evitably split  whenever  it  pretends  to  be  a  com- 
plete philosophy  of  life."  Arthur  J.  Balfour, 
in  "Theism  and  Humanism,"  p.  54,  says:  "In 
a  strictly  determined  physical  sj^stem,  depend- 
ing on  the  laws  of  matter  and  energy  alone,  no 
room  has  been  found,  and  no  room  can  be  found 
for  psychical  states  at  all.  They  are  noveitif^s. 
whose  intrusion  into  the  material  world  cannot 
be  denied,  but  whose  presence  and  behavior 
cannot  be  explained  by  the  laws  which  the 
world  obeys."  It  is  quite  fair  to  conclude, 
then,  that  from  this  time  forward  man  will  be 
regarded  as  having  a  dual  nature,  and  will  be 
studied  from  a  spiritual  as  well  as  from  a  ma- 
terial standpoint.  As  Balfour  says  again,  "We 
now  know  too  much  about  matter  to  be  materi- 
alists." 

In  attributing  to  man  a  dual  nature,  how- 
ever, we  must  not  be  understood  as  using  the 


IT 

term  nature  as  implying  personality.  The  idea 
"we  would  convey  is  not  that  man's  dual  nature- 
constitutes  dual  personality,  nor  that  the  con- 
joining of  his  two  natures  constitutes  one  per- 
sonality, but  that  this  conjunction  of  the  ma- 
terial body  with  the  immaterial  spirit  is  effect- 
ed for  the  purpose  of  subordinating  the  body 
to  the  spirit  so  as  to  adapt  it  to  the  uses  of  the 
spirit,  in  which  alone  personality  inheres.  Ma- 
terialism makes  nothing  more  of  man  than  an 
animal — to  be  sure,  a  highly  developed  animal, 
a  thinking  animal,  a  product  of  the  law  of  the 
"survival  of  the  fittest,"  and  yet  not  destined 
to  survive  but  to  perish.  In  thus  attributing  to 
man  but  one  nature — the  material — it  neces- 
sarily confines  itself  to  the  study  of  man,  and  of 
all  questions  concerning  his  nature  and  des- 
tiny, from  a  material  standpoint;  and  it  is  no 
wonder  that  all  of  its  theories  end  in  doubt,  if 
not,  like  Herbert  Spencer's,  in  despair.  The 
foundation  doctrine  of  materialism  concerning 
man  is  that  he  was  created  in  the  image  of  a 
beast,  and  it  can  therefore  build  for  him  no  high- 


18 

er  liope  than  his  nature  affords.  The  the- 
ory of  evolution,  however  interpreted,  is  utterly 
unsatisfactory  as  to  mental  phenomena  and  all 
else  pertaining  to  man's  higher  nature.  Alfred 
Russell  Wallace,  hardly  second  to  Darwin  as 
an  authority,  in  an  address  before  the  students 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University,  said,  "Evolu- 
tion ends  where  Psychology  begins."  While 
adhering  to  a  modification  of  the  evolutionary 
theory,  he  subscribed  to  the  doctrine  that  man 
waF  created  in  the  image  of  God,  not  only  as  a 
doctrine  of  theology,  but  of  science.  Without 
doubt,  whatever  inspiration  has  prompted  man 
to  develop  a  character  consistent  with  reason 
has  come  from  the  hope  that  he  is  capable  of 
achieving  a  higher  destiny  than  that  which 
awaits  the  brute  creation.  The  chief  distinction 
between  man  and  the  lower  animals  is  not 
thought  alone,  although  that  is  a  definite  line 
of  demarcation,  but  the  conscious  apprehension 
of  his  higher  nature  and  higher  destiny,  a  con- 
sciousness which  leads  him  to  look  down  upon 
the  brute  and  to  look  up  to  God.     *'The  basest 


19 

thought  about  man,"  says  Ruskin,  "is  that  he 
has  no  spiritual  nature."  Man  is  not  merely  a 
thinking  animal — a  material  being  only,  the 
outgrowth  of  nothing  but  material  forces — but 
he  is  a  spiritual  being,  to  whose  present  exist- 
ence his  animal  nature  is  subordinate,  the  two 
natures  being  so  distinct  that  when  separated 
the  higher  can  exist  without  the  lower. 

11. 

The  Question  of  a  Dual  Mind 

The  new  school  of  psychologists  not  only  ad- 
mit man's  dual  nature,  but  many  of  them  at- 
tempt to  explain  psychic  phenomena  by  attrib- 
uting to  man  a  dual  mind.  F.  H.  W.  Myers  di- 
vides the  mind  into  the  supraliminal  and  the 
subliminal.  Dr.  Albert  Moll  makes  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  primary  and  secondary  con- 
sciousness, as  does  Prof.  James,  the  latter  re- 
cognizing this  secondary  consciousness  as  an 
independent  intelligence,  a  "split-off,  limited 
and   buried,   but   yet   a  fully  conscious  self." 


20 

Thos.  J.  Hudson  divides  the  mind  into  two  dis- 
tinct and  separate  entities,  ascribing  to  them 
different  functions,  powers,  and  abilities.  He 
qualifies  this  hypothesis,  however,  by  saying 
that  * '  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  we 
consider  that  man  is  endowed  with  two  distinct 
minds,  or  that  his  one  mind  possesses  certain 
attributes  and  powers  under  some  conditions 
and  certain  other  attributes  and  powers  under 
other  conditions."  A.  B.  Olston  says  that  the 
therapeutic  value  of  mental  suggestion  is  not 
a  question  of  whether  there  are  two  minds,  and 
yet  insists  that  success  in  auto-suggestion  de- 
pends on  the  objective  mind  believing  in  and 
trusting  the  subjective  mind.  "We  shall  leave 
to  others,"  he  says,  "to  discuss  the  matter  of 
mind  unity  with  a  view  to  settling  the  ques- 
tion"— and  then  he  predicates  his  whole  the- 
ory of  mental  therapeutics  on  the  assumption 
that  the  objective  and  subjective  minds  are 
entities,  assigning  the  seat  of  the  former  to  the 
brain  and  that  of  the  latter  to  the  nerve  cen- 
ters   controlling   the  bodily  functions.     Other 


21 

authors  advance  still  other  theories,  all  differ- 
ing from  those  alread}^  noticed  and  more  or 
less  from  each  other. 

I  am  inclined  to  say,  with  Prof.  Munsterberg 
in  his  Psychology  and  Life,  "The  story  of  the 
subconscious  mind  can  be  told  in  three  words: 
There  is  none. '  *  But  this  answer  would  hardly 
satisfy  those  who  have  read  the  works  of  the 
authors  to  whom  I  have  referred.  As  for  my- 
self, the  following  considerations  seem  to  re- 
fute the  theory  of  a  dual  mind. 

1.  It  lacks  definiteness.  No  two  authors  ad- 
vocating it  agree  as  to  the  exact  nature  and 
functions  of  the  two  mental  entities  they  as- 
cribe to  man.  Some  are  so  wide  apart  in  their 
definitions  that  they  contradict  each  other. 
Hudson  makes  only  reason  and  memory  facul- 
ties of  the  objective  mind,  and  intuition,  sus- 
ceptibility to  suggestion,  perfect  reasoning, 
perfect  memory,  the  emotions,  telepathic  pow- 
ers, and  kinetic  energy  attributes  of  the  sub- 
jective mind.  Olston,  on  the  contrary,  invests 
both  the  objective  and  subjective  minds  with 


22 

the  faculties  ordinarily  attributed  to  the  nor- 
mal mental  structure,  but  gives  to  the  subjec- 
tive Superior  powers.  "The  subjective  mind  is 
a  perfect  memory,  * '  he  says,  and  ' '  it  has  re- 
sources for  obtaining  information  not  shared 
by  the  objective  mind."  He  gives  the  subjec- 
tive mind  alone  kinetic  power,  but  puts  it  un- 
der control  of  the  objective  mind,  saying,  ''The 
subjective  mind  receives  its  education  from  the 
objective  mind."  It  is  impossible  to  bring  har- 
mony out  of  all  this  confusion  as  to  statement. 
Each  theory  lacks  scientific  accuracy. 

2.  The  dual  theory  as  to  mind  is  founded  on 
a  wrong  assumption  as  to  what  constitutes 
human  personality.  Olston  says,  on  the  first 
page  of  his  volume  on  ' '  Mind  Power  and  Priv- 
ileges," that  mind  makes  man,  and  emphasizes 
this  statement  by  saying  further,  "Mind  .  . 
is  true  and  permanent  individuality."  He 
thus  makes  mind  an  embodiment  of  all  human 
powers.  This  is  essentially  the  materialistic 
conception  of  man's  individuality,   which   as- 


23 

serts  that  mind  is  but  a  manifestation  of  or- 
ganized matter,  and  when  the  organism  ceases 
to  exist  the  mind  ceases  to  exist.  Olston  agrees 
with  Hudson,  that  "Cerebral  anatomy  conclu- 
sively demonstrates  the  fact  that  there  can  be 
no  objective  mind  in  the  absence  of  a  brain." 
They  both  seem  to  disagree  with  Prof.  Bergson, 
President  of  the  British  Society  for  Psychical 
Research,  who  says:  "The  brain  simply  ex- 
tracts from  the  life  of  the  mind  (distinguish- 
ing between  the  life  of  the  brain  and  the  life  of 
the  mind)  that  which  is  capable  of  represen- 
tation in  movement.  The  cerebral  is  to  the 
mental  life  what  the  movements  of  the  baton  of 
a  conductor  are  to  the  symphony."  And  they 
totally  disagree  with  the  eminent  scientific 
authorities  who  still  endorse  what  Tyndall  de- 
clared in  his  Belfast  Address:  "You  cannot 
satisfy  the  human  understanding  in  its  demand 
for  logical  continuity  between  molecular  pro- 
cesses and  the  phenomena  of  the  human  mind." 
Olston  seems  to  transfer  the  permanency  of  in- 
dividuality, or  immortality,  to  the  subconscious 


24 

mind,  but  he  makes  it  dependent  on  tlie  pliysi- 
(^al  organism  also,  for  while  he  makes  it  the 
active  agent  in  operating  the  bodily  functions, 
he  makes  the  medulla,  the  spinal  cord,  and  the 
ganglia  the  media  on  which  its  operations  de- 
pend, if  indeed  he  does  not  make  its  very  ex- 
istence depend  on  these  organs,  as  he  says  the 
existence  of  the  objective  mind  depends  upon 
the  brain.  He  carries  the  materialistic  con- 
ception so  far  as  to  invest  even  the  infinites- 
imal cells  which  compose  the  body  with  intolli 
gence.  All  of  which  is  consistent  with  his  gen- 
eral theory  concerning  man's  personality  only 
on  the  ground  that  his  vague  definition  of  mind 
is  correct,  that  it  is  **a  sort  of  ever  existing 
l)ackground  of  intelligence"  —  a  definition 
which  makes  both  mind  and  man  but  mere 
shadows. 

It  matters  not  whether  the  conscious  or  sub- 
conscious mind  is  made  to  constitute  man's 
personality,  the  presumption  in  either  case  is 
entirely  wrong,  for  we  may  go  farther  tbaii 
Munsterberg  without  transgressing  the  bounds 


25 

pf  metaphysical  triil]i,  and  say  that  there  is  m> 
conscious  mind  and  no  subconscious  mind.  By 
which  we  mean  that  consciousness  does  not  in- 
here in  mind — that  the  power  to  cognize  men- 
tal operations  lies  back  of  the  mind  itself.  Tlie 
prodigies  we  have  named  who  performed  most 
wonderful  acts  of  mental  arithmetic  were  un- 
conscious of  the  nature  of  those  acts,  but  they 
were  conscious  of  the  acts  themselves.  We  no 
more  know  how  they  accomplished  these  phe- 
nomenal mental  feats  than  did  they.  To  at- 
tribute them  to  a  subconscious  mind,  without 
any  more  evidence  than  would  justify  attrib- 
uting them  to  the  brain  mind,  is  to  assume  the 
whole  question. 

Mind  is  a  word  of  very  indefinite  meaning. 
It  can  be  used  only  in  the  abstract.  It  is  gen- 
erally employed  to  express  the  rational  faculty, 
man's  power  to  reason.  It  is  sometimes  used 
to  denote  all  of  man's  powers,  to  take  in  his 
entire  spiritual  nature,  as  a  synonym  of  the 
soul.  (See  Webster).  This  only  makes  its 
meaning  more  vague,  but  it  is  only  when  used 


26 

in  this  vague  meaning  that  it  can  be  said  that 
the  mind  constitutes  human  personality. 

Now,  those  who  attribute  to  man  a  dual  mind 
use  the  term  as  designating  either  the  rational 
faculty  alone  or  man's  entire  spiritual  nature. 
Hudson  uses  the  objective  mind  in  the  former 
sense  and  the  subjective  mind  in  the  latter.  He 
attributes  only  reason  and  memory  to  the  one, 
and  "perfect  reason"  and  "perfect  memory" 
to  the  other,  thus  closely  approaching  Mrs. 
Eddy's  remarkable  definition  of  mortal  mind 
as  "Nothing,  claiming  to  be  something."  01- 
ston  is  not  as  specific  as  Hudson,  leaving  defi- 
nitions to  the  metaphysicians.  Both  practically 
assign  to  man  a  dual  mind  and  a  dual  person- 
ality, and  make  his  present  life  a  sort  of  Jeck- 
yll-and-Hyde  existence.  They  present  a  vague 
theory,  because  they  base  it  on  the  interpreta- 
tion of  human  personality  expressed  in  the 
vague  meaning  given  to  mind  when  used  to  de- 
note the  whole  of  man's  powers  instead  of  one 
class  only. 


27 

Have  not  both  anthropology  and  psychology 
assumed  a  definiteness  which  enables  us  to  out- 
line man's  nature  with  accuracy?  Do  we  not 
know  that  he  is  more  than  a  reasoning  being — 
more  than  a  mere  thinking  machine,  which  is 
all  materialism  makes  him?  He  is  also  an  emo- 
tional being,  a  moral  being,  a  volitional  being. 
But  when  we  have  said  all  this,  we  have  not 
fixed  his  personality.  Some  would  make  mind 
constitute  personality,  and  bring  all  the  achie- 
vements of  the  intellect  to  support  their  the- 
ory. Some  would  make  the  emotions  the  meas- 
ure of  personality,  claiming  that  it  could  wear 
no  more  enduring  crown  than  love.  Some 
would  make  moral  characteristics  the  distin- 
guishing manifestation  of  personality,  on  the 
ground  that  the  right  or  wrong  use  of  all  hu- 
man powers  depends  upon  these.  Some  would 
say  with  Emerson,  "Personality  resides  in 
the  will,"  and  this  belief  is  gaining  acceptance 
among  the  agnostics  and  materialists  especi- 
ally. In  Prof.  Munsterberg's  ''Psychology  and 
Life,"  man's  whole  life  is  defined  in  terms  of 


28 

the  will.  But  in  no  one  or  all  of  these  mani- 
festations of  personality  does  personality  it- 
self consist.  Man  is  a  conscious  being.  He 
may  be  divested  of  any  one  of  the  attributes 
he  possesses,  even  the  rational  faculty,  and 
still  remain  a  conscious  being.  Consciousness 
inheres  in  the  ego,  in  the  real  self,  in  the  spirit. 
And  the  conscious  ego  constitutes  personal  ex- 
istence, the  only  personality.  Personality  is 
not  a  manifestation  of  mind,  or  of  the  emotions, 
or  of  moral  characteristics,  or  even  of  will- 
]wwer,  but  all  of  these  are  manifestations  of 
I)ersonality. 

I  do  not  dispute  the  therapeutic  value  of 
mental  suggestion,  nor  the  extraordinary  facts 
which  are  certainly  to  be  accredited  as  psychic 
phenomena,  but  I  do  not  think  the  theory  of  a 
dual  mind  satisfactorily  explains  them.  An- 
other theory,  based  on  man's  spiritual  person- 
ality, I  think  more  rational  and  more  easily 
harmonized  with  the  belief  that  man  is  an  im- 
mortal being. 

Note, — Since  writing  the  above  on  Human  Personality 
I  have  met  with   that  remarkable  book  which   has   gone 


29 

throug:h  eight  editions,  Dr.  William  Hanna  Thomson's 
"Brain  and  Personality,"  which  fully  confirms  my  own 
conclusions.  From  recently  discovered  physiological  facts 
concerning  the  brain  and  its  functions,  the  author  demon- 
strates that  while  the  organ  is  the  seat  it  is  not  the  source 
of  mind,  that  it  is  but  an  instrument,  "and  no  instrument 
can  possibly  be  identical  with  the  agency  which  uses  it." 
The  best  organized  brain  cannot  "be  made  to  think  with- 
out a  thinker."  The  argument  of  this  volume  is  not  meta- 
physical or  speculative,  but  purely  physiological  and 
thoroughly  convincing. 


m. 

The  Question  of  a  Dual  Body. 

If  man's  personality  resides  in  his  spirit  be- 
ing and  that  being  is  permanent — that  is,  im- 
mortal, outlasting  the  present  natural  body — 
then  it  is  clear  that  questions  concerning  man's 
destiny  must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the 
relation  between  his  present  and  future  state 
of  existence.  "The  wider  is  the  sweep  of  our 
contemplative  vision,"  says  Arthur  J.  Balfour, 
"the  more  clearly  do  we  see  that  the  role  of 
man,  if  limited  to  an  earthly  state,  is  meaning- 
less and  futile."     How  greatly  man's  powers 


30 

may  he  enlarged  under  the  new  conditions  of  a 
future  state  we  cannot  even  surmise,  but  there 
are  certain  bounds  and  limitations  to  which  a 
finite  spirit  must  of  necessity  be  subjected 
which  afford  us  ground  for  something  more 
than  mere  speculation,  for  what  we  may  at  least 
term  reasonable  conjecture. 

1.  We  may  affirm  with  a  good  degree  of  cer- 
tainty that  a  material  bodv  will  be  necessary  to 
the  spirit  in  an  enlarged  sphere  of  existence  as 
it  is  in  this.  This  necessity  arises  from  several 
considerations. 

1)  A  body  is  essential  to  finite  spirit  for  lo- 
calization, K  spirit  must  either  be  confined 
to  spacial  bounds  or  it  must  be  infinite.  Even 
in  an  infinite  universe  there  can  be  room  for  but 
one  infinite  spirit.  If  confined  to  spacial 
bounds,  a  finite  spirit  must  be  subject  to  the 
laws  of  space — must  be  subject  to  extension 
and  form.  As  extension  and  form  can  be  predi- 
cated only  of  matter,  the  spirit  must  necessarily 
become  the  inhabitant  of  a  material  body.  The 
only  freedom  we  can  predicate  of  finite  spirits 


31 

is  freedom  within  law,  which  implies  free- 
dom within  spacial  bounds,  that  is,  freedom 
within  a  prescribed  material  sphere.  No  other 
localized  sphere  is  thinkable.  And  to  conform 
to  the  laws  of  such  a  prescribed  sphere  a  ma- 
terial body  is  necessary.     Of  this,  more  anon. 

2)  A  body  is  essential  to  a  finite  spirit  for 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge.  There  is  no  rea- 
son whatever  to  suppose  that  the  human  spirit 
will  enter  another  world  of  being  with  any 
more  knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  that  world 
than  it  had  of  the  conditions  of  this  world  when 
it  entered  it.  And  there  is  no  more  reason  to 
suppose  that  it  can  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the 
material  bounds  and  conditions  and  laws  of 
that  unknown  sphere,  without  the  medium  of  a 
body,  than  it  can  gain  such  knowledge  of  this 
world  without  a  body.  The  argument  may  be 
one  from  analogy  only,  but  it  is  far  more  ra- 
tional than  to  suppose  that  in  another  state 
the  spirit  will  drink  in  all  knowledge  intui- 
tively. Only  of  One  can  it  be  said,  *'His  un- 
derstanding is  infinite."     ''Knowledge?     It  is 


32 

his  plaything!"  Omniscience  no  more  belongs 
to  a  linite  being  than  does  omnipresence. 
Let  us  be  sensible.  We  are  far  from  being 
gods,  and  always  will  be. 

3)  A  body  is  essential  to  a  finite  spirit  to  add 
to  its  happiness.  This  may  seem  an  odd  con- 
ceit, but  is  it  as  odd  as  the  notion  that  when 
the  spirit  leaves  this  world  it  will  spend  etern- 
ity in  an  emotional  ecstacv  vrhicli  can  hardly 
be  characterized  as  anything  else  than  spirit- 
ual insanity!  The  future  existence  will  be  a 
rational  existence.  It  will  without  doubt  be 
spent  for  the  most  part  in  the  study  of  the 
material  universe,  and  the  gi-eater  part  of  the 
happiness  it  will  afford  will  be  that  obtained 
through  the  acquisition  of  a  knowlege  of  God 
as  he  has  revealed  himself  in  his  works,  a 
knowledge  to  be  absorbed  through  the  medium 
of  the  new  body. 

2.  Again,  we  may  affirm  with  no  less  cer- 
tainty that  the  body  of  the  spirit  translated 
to  another  sphere  must  be  one  adapted  to  that 
sphere. 


33 

1)  In  wliat  will  that  other  world  or  sphere 
differ  from  the  earth  we  now  inhabit?  As  far 
as  we  know,  in  immensity  only.  But,  it  will  not 
])e  the  boundless  universe.  If  we  believe  the  hu- 
man spirit  to  be  a  creation  of  God,  we  cannot 
believe  that  it  will  be  allowed  to  roam  through 
illimitable  space  at  will.  ' '  God  is  not  the  author 
of  confusion."  Freedom  within  law  will  for- 
ever confine  the  spirit  to  spacial  bounds  as  well 
as  to  a  material  body.  The  sphere  it  will  enter 
when  it  leaves  this  world  will  doubtless  be  one 
beyond  our  present  conception.  Intimations 
of  the  vastness  of  its  extent  have  been  hazard- 
ed by  some  great  minds.  Lord  Kelvin,  the 
renowned  scientist,  estimated  from  the  known 
velocities  of  stars  visible  to  us  that  our  solar 
system  is  part  of  a  vast  sphere  composed  of 
gravitational  matter  equivalent  to  a  thousand 
million  of  suns.  Whatever  may  be  the  extent 
of  the  sphere  in  which  the  spirit  will  find  itself, 
it  will  require  a  material  body  adapted  to  con- 
form to  the  material  laws  governing  that 
sphere. 


2)  The  atmosphere  of  earth  constitutes  the 
sphere  in  vrhich  the  physical  man  lives,  moves, 
and  has  his  being.  Beyond  this  aerial  region 
his  body  would  become  useless  as  a  vehicle  of 
motion,  as  it  would  undergo  immediate  dis- 
solution, and  equally  useless  as  a  medium  for 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  as  sense  percep- 
tion would  be  utterly  destroyed.  The  ethereal 
region  is  the  most  attenuated  form  of  matter 
in  mass  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  and  yet 
a  solid  wall  of  rock  could  not  as  effectually  con- 
fine man  to  his  earthly  abode.  That  the  ether  in 
which  our  world  moves  pervades  universal 
space,  as  many  scientists  teach,  I  do  not  believe 
to  be  an  established  fact.  The  theory  is  an  un- 
proveable  one.  There  are  forms  of  matter  more 
refined  and  attenuated  than  the  so-called  ether, 
vastly  diffused  as  it  may  be.  Now  why  may 
there  not  be  an  immense  sphere,  including  all 
the  worlds  visible  to  us,  and  many  more,  of 
which  ether  is  the  atmosphere,  and  a  still  more 
attenuated  form  of  matter  the  boundary  wall? 
Beyond  such  bounds  a  body  adapted  to  life  and 


35 

inofion  in  an  ethereal  environment,  as  the  pre- 
sent body  is  to  earth's  atmosphere,  could  not 
pass.  New  and  greatly  increased  freedom  of 
motion  would  make  visits  to  all  the  worlds  com- 
posing this  vast  celestial  region  easier  than 
journeys  to  points  on  earth  are  now,  and  greatly 
expanded  powers  of  perception  would  render 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge  of  these  multitud- 
inous worlds  a  task  of  ease  and  pleasure. 
As  in  this  new  and  higher  school  spiritual  be- 
ings should  develop  increased  fitness  for  a  still 
more  advanced  sphere  of  knowledge  they  could 
be  translated  to  a  new  environment,  invested 
with  new  habiliments  that  would  enable  them  to 
master  the  new  material  forces  with  which  they 
would  be  brought  in  contact,  and  so  go  on 
* '  from  glory  to  glory ' '  forever. 

This  is  not  altogether  fancy  on  my  part.  Both 
Science  and  Scripture  make  it  probable.  Lord 
Kelvin's  suggestion  is  not  the  only  basis  for  such 
an  hypothesis.  "Our  knowledge  about  gravita- 
tion is  altogether  too  vague, ' '  Says  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge.      That   what  we  call  the  attraction  of 


86 

gravitation  applies  to  the  entire  material 
universe  is  now  a  disputed  question.  Tlie  New- 
tonian tlieory  that  the  attraction  of  gravity 
is  in  proportion  to  the  mass  of  material 
bodies  and  their  distance  from  each  other 
lias  been  modified  by  the  discovery  that 
electric  conditions  modify  if  they  do  not  con- 
trol this  attraction.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  weight 
of  a  body  is  different  at  the  poles  from  what  it 
is  at  the  equator.  This  and  other  discoveries 
have  led  some  scientists  to  adopt  an  entirely 
new  theory  concerning  gravitation,  that  the  at- 
tractive force  which  material  bodies  exert  upon 
each  other  is  owing  to  electricity  magnetizing 
these  bodies  by  a  certain  disposition  of  the  elec- 
trons and  thus  holding  them  to  their  orbits. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  force  of  gravity, as  we  know  it, may 
act  only  within  bounds  pervaded  by  what  we 
call  the  ether,  bej^ond  which  it  may  be  modified 
to  suit  new  conditions.  The  gravitational  syst- 
em of  which  our  world  forms  a  |:)art,  if  limited 
at  all,  must,  to  conform  to  all  we  know  of  natur- 


ai  law,  be  spherical.  A  more  distant  system,  the 
orbs  of  which  would  move  in  a  more  attenua- 
ted form  of  matter  than  what  we  call  ether, 
vv'ould  of  necessity  come  in  contact  with  ours 
at  every  point  of  our  outer  boundary,  thus  mak- 
ing it  a  concentric  envelope  of  this  ethereal 
sphere.  Recent  astronomical  discoveries  render 
it  more  probable  that  beyond  our  gravitational 
system  there  is  a  vastly  enlarged  astral  system 
which  necessarily  envelops  ours.  Director 
Campbell  of  Lick  Observatory  is  authority  for 
the  statement  that  observations  at  the  station  of 
the  University  of  California  at  Santiago,  Chile, 
reveal  that  the  two  clusters  of  light  known 
as  the  Magellanic  Clouds,  and  hitherto  presum- 
ed to  be  a  portion  of  the  Milky  Way,  are  two 
distinct  cosmic  units  composed  of  suns  or  stars 
like  our  own,  and  that  they  are  moving  through 
space  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  miles  per  second!  "Their  appearance 
and  proximity  to  each  other,"  says  Di- 
rector Campbell,  "leads  to  a  strong  suspicion 
that  a  more  or  less  intimate  relation  may  exist 


S8 

between  tliem."  While  thus  seemiug  to  be  relat- 
od  to  each  other,  neither  of  them  have  any  eti'ect 
on  our  system,  but  act  independently.  The  in- 
terrelationship of  their  movements  indicates 
that  they  traverse  another  sphere  of  space, 
and  the  inconceivable  rapidity  with  which  they 
move  indicates  that  their  material  environment 
is  much  more  attenuated  than  the  ether.  In 
connection  with  these  discoveries  it  is  predicted 
that  it  will  soon  be  demonstrated  that  infinite 
space  contains  hundreds  and  thousands  of  col- 
lections of  material  worlds  similar  to  the  system 
of  which  our  own  planet  is  such  a  minute  frac- 
tion. Does  not  all  this  ''lead  to  a  strong  sus- 
picion ' '  that  the  universe  is  composed  of  mater- 
ial spheres  enveloping  each  other  to  a  boundless 
extent  ?  Certainly  there  is  room  for  such  a  cos- 
mographic  conception.  Our  solar  system  may 
not  be  the  center  but  only  a  part  of  the  ether- 
filled  gravitational  sphere  in  which  it  moves. 
It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  beyond  this 
ethereal  sphere  there  is  one  still  larger  in  which, 
instead  of  solar,  cosmic  systems  may  be  the  un- 


39 

its,  moving  in  space  filled  witli  more  attenuated 
matter,  and  beyond  this  enlarged  sphere  anoth- 
er larger  still,  and  so  on,  each  successive  sphere 
completely  surrounding  the  other  and  preserv- 
ed intact  by  the  separating  elements  compos- 
ing its  boundary. 

"In  my  Father's  house  are  many  abiding 
places."  (R.  V.  margin.)  These  words,  which 
fell  from  the  lips  of  the  greatest  of  all  teachers, 
mean  something.  To  me  they  mean  that  the 
"Father's  house"  is  the  boundless  universe, 
and  that  the  "abiding  places"  are  the  concen- 
tric spheres,  each  one  in  the  endless  succession 
presenting  enlarged  spacial  boundary,  enlarged 
sources  of  knowledge,  and  enlarged  views  of 
the  perfection  of  Deity.  I  can  imagine  no  other 
rational  manner  in  which  eternity  can  be  spent 
than  in  an  infinite  study  of  God  and  his  works, 
and  I  can  imagine  no  other  gradations  of  op- 
portunity for  such  study  than  that  which  en- 
larged concentric  spheres  of  space  would  afford. 
As  one  of  our  modern  writers  has  said,  "The 
sphere  is  the  emblem  of  immortality."     Such 


40 

a  conception  of  the  universe  makes  it  what  it 
is  evidently  designed  to  be,  a  fit  university  for 
the  sons  of  God. 

3.  There  is  no  conceivable  reason  why  a 
body  adapted  to  an  ethereal  environment  may 
not  be  an  inner  vestment  of  the  spirit  now. 
"There  is  a  natural  body,  and  there  is  a  spir- 
itual body,"  says  Paul.  He  also  makes  a  dis- 
tinction not  only  between  soul  and  body,  but 
between  soul  and  spirit,  leaving  us  to  infer  that 
by  the  term  soul  he  means  the  spiritual  body. 
John  Wesley  so  interprets  him,  saying,  ''The 
soul  seems  to  be  the  immediate  clothing  of  the 
spirit,  .  .  never  separated  from  it  either  in 
life  or  death."  Many  theologians  take  the  same 
view,  and  look  upon  this  inner  body  as  the  res- 
urrection body.  Science  has  not  demonstrated 
the  existence  of  such  a  body,  and  perhaps  can- 
not demonstrate  it,  but  it  offers  no  objection  to 
the  theory  of  its  existence.  Chavee,  a  French 
physicist,  says,  "No  fact  in  physics,  chemistry 
or  mechanics  contravenes  the  theory."  In- 
deed, natural  facts  confirm  it.      There  are   in- 


sects  which  possess  two  separate  and  distinct 
bodies,  one  adapted  to  a  more  enlarged  sphere 
than  the  other.  It  is  idle  to  urge  that  such  an, 
inner  body  adapted  to  another  sphere  of  activ- 
ity is  not  necessary  to  man's  earthly  existence. 
Materialists  urge  the  same  objection  against 
the  spirit.  If  we  are  to  study  man  in  his  rela- 
tion to  the  future  as  well  as  the  present  life, 
we  must  regard  him  as  a  mortal  and  an  immor- 
tal being,  as  possessing  natural  and  spiritual 
qualifications.  An  inner  vestiture  of  the  spirit 
may  not  be  necessary  for  his  present  environ- 
ment, but  it  may  be  necessary  for  his  introduc- 
tion to  another  state  of  being.  It  is  well  for  us 
to  keep  in  mind  Balfour  Stewart's  observation: 
"We  know  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  of  the 
ultimate  structure  and  properties  of  matter, 
whether  organic  or  inorganic."  We  cannot 
affirm,  neither  can  we  deny,  that  man  possesses 
a  dual  body.  What  renders  it  probable,  how- 
ever, is  that 

4.    This  theory  explains  psychic  phenomena 
more  satisfactorilv  than  does  that  of  a  dual 


42 

mind.  The  value  of  a  theory  depends  on  the 
number  of  facts  it  explains.  There  are  but  few 
if  any  facts  concerning  psychic  phenomena 
which  a  dual  body  will  not  explain. 

1)  The  facts  concerning  dreams  which  most 
need  explanation  are — 

a)  That  in  general,  fantastic  as  they  may 
seem,  they  present  features  of  imagery  which 
transcend  the  ordinary  powers  of  man  to  pro- 
duce. The  physical  explanation  of  this  is  that 
''powers  of  visualization  and  other  faculties 
are  enhanced  by  sleep,  so  that  the  strength  of 
dream  images  considerably  exceeds  those  of  the 
mental  images  of  the  ordinary  man. "  (Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica.)  But  this  is  merely  stating 
the  fact  itself  which  needs  explanation.  Those 
who  hold  the  theory  of  a  subconscious  mind 
claim  that  its  superior  powers  produce  the  ex- 
traordinary features.  But  this  is  simply  at- 
tributing **  powers  of  visualization  and  other 
faculties"  to  the  subconscious  mind  which  need 
explanation  as  much  as  the  facts  themselves. 
Does  not  the  theory  of  a  spiritual  body  affoid 


48 

a  more  satisfactory  explanation.  If  the  spirit 
is  invested  with  such  a  body,  designed  to  meet 
its  needs  in  a  higher  sphere,  it  is  evident  this 
body  must  possess  **  powers  of  visualization 
and  other  faculties"  far  exceeding  those  of  the 
natural  body.  These  may  be  latent  for  the 
most  part,  but  the  very  suspension  of  the  or- 
dinary powers  in  sleep  may  call  them  into  ex- 
ercise, repressed  as  they  are.  This  will  appear 
more  probable  considered  in  connection  with 
another  fact  concerning  dreams — 

b)  That  some  of  them  are  of  a  most  striking 
character,  in  which  even  ''the  reasoning  power 
may  attain  a  higher  level  than  that  of  the  or- 
dinary conscious  life."  (Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica.)  The  well-authenticated  case  of  Prof. 
Hilprecht,  head  of  the  Assyrian  department  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  is  but  one  of 
many.  In  March,  1913,  he  was  trying  to  de- 
cipher the  fragmentary  inscriptions  on  two 
broken  bits  of  agate,  supposed  to  be  pieces  of 
old  Babylonian  finger  rings.  After  many  un- 
successful attempts  at  translation,  he  gave  it 


44 

as  his  opinion  that  the  fragments  were  "un- 
classifiable. "  Thinking  the  question  settled, 
he  retired  to  rest.  In  his  sleep  he  dreamed  that 
a  Chaldean  priest  took  him  into  a  temple  treas- 
ure-chamber and  showed  him  many  scraps  of 
agate  and  lapsis  lazuli  on  the  floor,  and  told 
him  that  the  two  fragments  he  had  tried  to  de- 
cipher were  not  finger  rings,  but  pieces  of  one 
cylinder,  like  those  offered  at  the  shrine  of  Bel 
and  other  idols.  Awaking  from  his  dream,  the 
professor  leaped  from  his  bed,  as  did  Archime- 
des from  his  bath-tub,  not  shouting  *' Eureka" 
as  did  the  old  philosopher,  but  ''It  is  so!  It  is 
so!"  greatly  to  the  alarm  of  his  good  wife.  And 
comparing  the  two  fragments,  and  fitting  them 
together,  he  soon  succeeded  in  reading  the  in- 
scriptions. Such  dreams,  including  new  con- 
ceptions and  leading  to  unthought  of  conclus- 
ions, sometimes  resulting  in  practical  inven- 
tions, are  proofs  of  higher  powers  than  those 
ordinarily  accorded  to  man.  The  new  psychol- 
ogists attribute  them  to  the  subconscious  mind, 
which,  says  Olston,  "reasons  logically  and  with 


45 

acumen."  But  where  is  the  necessity  for  in- 
venting  a  second  mind  to  account  for  these  phe- 
nomena? The  revelations  made  by  these  un- 
usual dreams  are  made  to  the  same  mind  which 
had  been  previously  reasoning  on  the  same  sub- 
jects, and  why  should  it  not  have  been  aided  by 
the  higher  powers  of  perception  possessed  by 
the  more  refined  material  organism?  This  has 
at  least  a  seeming  confirmation  in  another  fact 
concerning  dreams — 

c)  That  they  undoubtedly  at  times  originate 
from  bodily  states.  The  pleasurable  sensations 
attending  relaxation  tend  to  produce  pleasant 
dreams,  while  indigestion  or  some  other  physic- 
al disturbance  may  bring  on  all  the  horrors  of 
nightmare.  ' '  Alcoholic  subjects, ' '  says  the  En- 
cyclopedia Britannica,  "have  vivid  and  terrify- 
ing dreams. ' '  Now,  if  bodily  conditions  account 
for  ordinary  dreams,  is  this  not  a  presumption 
that  those  of  a  higher  order,  for  which  the  func- 
tions of  the  natural  body  (including  the  brain) 
will  not  account,  are  produced  by  functions  of 
the  more  refined  body,  which,  if  it  exists  at  all. 


46 

Jiiust  exist  in  sympathetic  relation  to  tlie  mind 
of  the  spirit? 

Dreams,  however,  remarkable  as  they  may  be, 
are  generally  regarded  as  the  least  important 
of  psychical  phenomena. 

2)  Somnambulism,  which  is  but  another 
form  of  dream  phenomena,  is  deemed  as  more 
mysterious  and  as  more  needing  explanation. 
It  can  be  studied  only  in  a  well  attested  concrete 
case,  like  that  of  the  young  ecclesiastic  who 
was  observed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bordeaux. 
He  formed  a  regular  habit  of  getting  up  at  night 
in  a  somnambulistic  state  and  going  to  his  study 
where  he  composed  and  wrote  sermons  in  the 
dark.  When  he  had  finished  a  page  he  read  it 
over  carefully  and  properly  corrected  it.  A 
broad  piece  of  cardboard  interposed  between 
his  eyes  and  the  sheet  upon  which  he  wrote 
made  no  difference;  he  wrote,  read  and  correct- 
ed as  if  there  had  ])een  no  obstruction.  When 
through  with  his  work  he  returned  to  his  bed, 
and  in  the  morning  had  not  the  slightest  idea 
of  what  he  had  thus  done.     The  main  facts  to  be 


47 

accounted  for  in  this  as  in  nearly  every  other 
case  of  somnambulism  are  the  exercise  of  visual 
power  without  sensation  and  the  exercise  of 
mental  power  without  conscious  cerebration. 
The  theory  of  a  subconscious  mind  will  not 
explain  either  without  the  adoption  of  the  idea 
of  a  double  personality.  The  theory  of  a  spir- 
itual body  fits  the  case  completely.  Such 
a  body  would  necessarily  possess  visual 
powers  far  transcending  those  of  the  natural 
body,  something  like  the  X-ray  power,  to 
which  opaque  substances  would  present  no  ob- 
stacle. It  would  also  possess  mental  mechan- 
ism far  surpassing  that  of  the  brain,  by  means 
of  which  the  spirit  or  ego  could  act  al- 
most without  effort.  Given  these  media,  and 
the  mysterious  actions  of  the  young  ecclesias- 
tic are  easily  accounted  for.  But  another  fact 
remains  unexplained.  He  himself  was  not  con- 
scious of  these  actions,  either  at  the  time  of 
their  performance  or  afterward.  On  the  the- 
ory of  a  subconscious  mind,  a  knowledge  of  his 
acts  was  retained  only  in  the  memory  possessed 


48 

hy  this  inner  mind.  On  the  theory  of  a  spirit- 
ual body,  the  explanation  would  be  that,  just 
as  the  memory  of  acts  performed  under  normal 
conditions  are  stored  in  the  brain  cells  and  for 
the  most  part  are  retained  only  in  subcon- 
sciousness, so  these  abnormal  acts  are  register- 
ed in  the  memory  receptacle  of  the  inner  body 
and  retained  only  in  subconsciousness.  The 
one  explanation  is  at  least  as  satisfactory  as 
the  other,  while  it  renders  the  previous  con- 
clusions more  satisfactory  by  harmonizing  with 
them, 

3)  A  subconscious  mind  is  less  needed  to 
explain  telepathy  than  perhaps  any  other  psy- 
chological phenomena.  Sir  W.  Crooke  suggests 
that  transmission  of  telepathic  messages  is  ef- 
fected by  means  of  waves  of  smaller  magnitude 
and  greater  frequency  than  those  which  consti- 
tute X-rays.  Flammarion  makes  a  similar  sug- 
gestion. "There  can  be  no  doubt,"  he  says, 
' '  that  our  psychical  force  creates  a  movement  of 
the  ether  which  transmits  itself  afar,  like  all 
movements  of  ether,  and  becomes  perceptible 


49 

to  brains  in  hannony  with  our  own.  "  If  trans- 
mitted thought  thus  begins  with  brain  action 
and  is  intercepted  by  responsive  brain  action, 
then  telepathy  is  a  mental  process  abnormal  only 
in  being  restricted  to  harmonizing  conditions, 
and  its  exercise  under  such  conditions  depends 
upon  physical  media  such  as  highly  developed 
ether  waves.  For  all  this  a  spiritual  body  af- 
fords the  best  possible  explanation.  It  is  as 
fully  credible  that  it  should  be  capable  of  trans- 
ferring thought  messages,  as  that  humanly  in- 
vented instruments  should  transfer  spoken  mes- 
sages by  wireless  telephony.  In  either  case  the 
only  mind  involved  is  the  brain-mind. 

4)  The  theories  which  have  been  invented 
to  explain  hypnotism  are  numerous,  inapt,  and 
sometimes  contradictory,  not  one  taking  on  a 
demonstrative  character.  The  magnetic  the- 
ory has  long  since  passed  into  oblivion.  Of 
those  who  still  assign  only  physical  causes  for 
the  hypnotic  state,  one  author  ascribes  all  the 
symptoms  to  cerebral  anaemia;  another  to  just 
the  opposite,    cerebral    congestion;  a  third  to 


50 

temporary  suppression  of  the  functions  of  the 
cerebrum;  a  fourth  to  abnormal  cerebral  excit- 
ability; a  fifth  to  the  independent  function  of 
one  hemisphere  of  the  brain,  and  so  on.  Olston 
and  other  psychologists  of  the  dual  mind  school 
define  hypnotism  as  "the  abeyance  of  the  ob- 
jective mind,  which  leaves  the  subjective  mind 
in  control  of  the  body,"  which  is  an  improve- 
ment on  the  purely  physical  theories,  but  not 
much  more  satisfactory  as  to  explanations  ren- 
dered. "Most  of  these  theories,"  says  the  En- 
cyclopedia Britannica,  "would,  even  if  true, 
carry  us  but  a  little  way  towards  a  complete 
understanding  of  the  facts."  The  theory  most 
generally  accepted  in  scientific  circles  is  that 
of  "Mental  Dissociation,"  by  which  is  meant 
a  separation  of  the  idea-forming  powers  of  the 
brain  before  they  rise  to  consciousness,  and  the 
giving  of  intensified  direction  to  such  of  these 
powers  as  the  hypnotizer  wishes  to  control. 
Not  only  is  this  theory  exceedingly  compli- 
cated, but  it  is  admitted  that  it  will  not  explain 
all    hypnotic    phenomena    without    connecting 


51 

with  it  a  "co-consciousness"  which  is  equiva- 
lent to  a  secondary  personality — an  admission 
which  minifies  if  it  does  not  destroy  its  force 
as  a  physiological  hypothesis,  all  it  claims  to 
be. 

One  class  of  hypnotic  actions,  especially,  re- 
main unexplained  by  all  of  these  merely  sug- 
gestive theories,  as  the  statement  of  the  Ency- 
clopedia Britannica  indicates:  "The  post-hyp- 
notic reckoning  and  noting  of  the  lapse  of  time, 
(as  when  the  subjects  have  obeyed  commands 
to  perform  certain  actions  at  a  precise  moment 
of  which  they  could  have  no  normal  conscious- 
ness,) cannot  be  accounted  for  by  any  intensifi- 
cation of  any  faculty  that  we  at  present  recog- 
nize or  understand."  More  mysterious  than 
this  apparently  unconscious  measurement  of 
time  are  the  complicated  mathematical  and 
musical  performances,  conforming  to  fixed  laws 
and  principles,  given  spontaneously  by  unin- 
formed minds  not  under  hypnotic  influence — 
abnormal  actions  performed  by  minds  in  nor- 
mal   state — seeming    contradictions    of   man's 


52 

powers  wliicli  approach  wliat  is  termed  the  su- 
pernatural. Connecting  these  phenomena  which 
no  psychological  theory  yet  advanced  explains 
with  those  of  a  similar  kind  which  it  is 
acknowledged  n  o  theory  o  f  hypnotism 
can  explain,  I  think  gives  us  an  explanation 
of  both  in  a  spiritual  body.  Such  a  body, 
designed  for  a  state  o  f  transcendent  op- 
portunity for  the  acquisition  o  f  knowl- 
edge, would  necessarily  possess  powers  of  per- 
ception and  mental  mechanism  which  would 
make  such  phenomenal  performances  as  easy 
as  the  simplest  rational  tasks  are  to  any  nor- 
mal mind  now.  May  not  the  "sixth  sense," 
so  often  hinted  at  by  physicists  and  psycholo- 
gists, be  a  hidden  perceptive  power  of  the  invis- 
ible inner  form  of  the  spirit?  How  the  spirit- 
ual body  may  be  affected  through  the  abnormal 
conditions  of  arithmetical  or  musical  prodigies 
we  can  no  more  tell  than  how  the  subconscious 
mind,  if  it  exists,  can  be  so  affected.  While, 
therefore,  of  the  physical  and  psychic  theories, 
I  regard  the  physiological  theory  of  mental  dis- 


53 


sociation  as  the  best  yet  offered,  although  con- 
fessedly inadequate  to  account  for  all  the  facts 
of  psychic  phenomena,  I  am  inclined  to  look 
upon  what  may  be  called  the  Spiritual-Physio- 
logical theory  as  still  better,  affording  as  it 
does  reasonable  explanation  for  all  such  facts. 
Take  as  a  concrete  example  the  well  known 
incident  in  the  career  of  Mr.  John  Wanamaker. 
Leaving  his  great  establishment  in  Philadel- 
phia late  one  evening  in  company  with  an  as- 
sistant, he  had  proceeded  a  considerable  dis- 
tance when  he  was  suddenly  impressed  that 
danger  threatened  the  property.  It  is  unthink- 
able that  such  an  impression  could  have  been 
produced  by  any  functional  exercise  of  the  nat- 
ural body.  There  was  no  smell  of  fire  on  his 
garments  or  any  other  suggestive  hint  appre- 
ciable by  the  senses.  Nor  could  this  impress- 
ion have  been  born  of  his  normal  mind.  He 
had  satisfied  himself  that  all  was  secure  be- 
fore leaving  the  store,  and  his  mind  was  fully 
convinced  that  such  was  the  case.  And  yet  so 
strong  was  his  sense  of  impending  calamity 


54 

that  he  hastened  back  and  was  just  m  time  to 
save  the  great  building  and  its  valuable  stock 
of  goods  from  being  consumed  by  a  fire  which 
had  been  kindled  in  some  inexplicable  manner. 
The  complicated  theory  of  a  subconscious  mind 
affords  a  roundabout  explanation  of  this  phe- 
nomenal incident,  but  how  much  more  simple 
and  direct  is  the  solution  suggested  by  the  the- 
ory of  a  spiritual  body,  with  its  superior  pow- 
ers of  perception  and  its  sympathetic  relation 
to  the  human  spirit? 

IV. 

The  Question  of  Man's  Spirit  Nature. 

This  theoretical  discussion  would  be  incom- 
plete without  pursuing,  as  far  as  the  limited 
light  of  reason  will  allow,  the  question,  What 
is  the  Human  Spirit"?  Materialists  who  deny 
the  existence  of  a  spirit  are  as  inconsistent  as 
spiritists  who  deny  the  existence  of  matter.  T 
think  the  truth  lies  between  the  two  extremes 
— that  matter  and  spirit  are  designed  to  act 


55 

togetlier— and  to  harmonize  the  apparent  con- 
tradictory phenomena  of  a  physical  and  a  psy- 
chic character  is  evidently  the  office  of  science, 
which,  as  Arthur  J.  Balfour  says,  "is  but  an 
extension  of  common  sense."  I  make  no  ques- 
tion of  the  existence  of  the  human  spirit.  I 
take  that  for  granted.  And,  taking  its  exist- 
ence as  a  starting  point,  the  only  practical  in- 
quiry concerning  it  is,  What  is  the  human  spir- 
it? In  answer,  I  offer  only  such  propositions 
as  seem  to  be  self-evident. 

1.  A  human  spirit  is  a  finite  being — finite  as 
to  space,  and  therefore  limited  in  its  sphere  of 
action— finite  as  to  duration,  having  had  a  be- 
ginning, and  therefore  limited  as  to  the  past 
of  eternity — finite  as  to  knowledge,  and  there- 
fore limited  as  to  the  scope  of  its  survey  of 
the  universe — finite  as  to  power,  and  therefore 
limited  in  its  ability  to  master  and  utilize  the 
forces  of  the  universe — finite  as  to  independent 
existence,  and  therefore  subject  to  a  Higher 
Power — finite  as  to  authority,  and  therefore 
limited  by  law.     All  of  these  conclusions  are 


56 

self-evident,  and  it  is  impossible  to  reason  with 
any  degree  of  certainty  with  reference  to  the 
spirit  of  man  without  keeping  these  postulates 
in  view. 

2.  The  human  spirit  is  a  personal  being. 
Perhaps  the  most  vague  conception  that  pre- 
vails among  mankind  is  that  concerning  the 
human  spirit.  One  reason  for  this  is,  that  in- 
stead of  attributing  personality  to  the  spirit 
itself,  it  is  regarded  as  inhering  in  the  mani- 
festations of  personality.  We  look  at  the  seen, 
and  overlook  the  unseen.  As  to  the  essential 
nature  of  spirit  we  know  nothing,  and  that  is 
no  part  of  our  inquiry.  But  we  do  know  that 
the  human  spirit  is  a  personal  being,  for 

1 )  It  is  conscious  of  its  own  personality,  of 
which  every  human  being  is  witness — con- 
scious of  its  individuality,  that  is,  its  indivisi- 
bility, for  that  is  the  meaning  of  the  root  word 
— conscious  of  its  oneness.  **An  object  which 
is  in  the  strict  and  primary  sense  one,  and  can- 
not be  logically  divided,  is  called  individual," 
says  Whateley.     Lotze,  in  his   "Microcosmos," 


57 

says,  "We  cannot  think  and  not  be  conscious  of 
a  thinking  self."  It  is  just  as  true  that  this 
thinking  self  is  the  only  self  which  conscious- 
ness can  recognize.  This  is  the  very  core  of 
the  meaning  of  the  ancient  axiom,  ''Cogito, 
ergo  sum"  ("I  think,  therefore  I  am").  To 
multiply  personality  is  to  eliminate  it  from  con- 
sciousness. It  destroys  individuality,  that  is 
indivisibility,  which  is  the  very  basis  of  per- 
sonal being.  And  this  is  just  what  the  theory 
of  a  dual  mind  does,  cautiously  as  it  is  express- 
ed. Says  Myers,  "I  accord  no  primacy  to  my 
ordinary  waking  self,  except  that  among  my 
potential  selves  this  one  has  shown  itself  the 
fittest  to  meet  the  needs  of  common  life." 
Prof.  James  speaks  of  the  secondary  conscious- 
ness as  a  "split-off,  limited  and  buried,  but 
yet  a  fully  conscious  self. ' '  Hudson  and  Olston 
each  make  the  mind  the  person,  and  then  divide 
the  mind  into  two  distict  and  separate  entities, 
and  attribute  conscious  personality  to  each  as 
changed  conditions  seem  to  require.  This 
double  or  multiple  personality  is  irreconcilable 


58 

with  the  oneness  of  the  thinking  self,  the  con- 
scious spirit,  the  real  personal  being. 

2)  The  personal  characteristic  traits  which 
an  individual  exhibits  are  in  fact  only  mani- 
festations of  the  personality  of  the  spirit.  It 
is  said  that  there  are  no  two  human  faces  alike, 
and  it  may  also  be  said,  as  this  physiological 
fact  indicates,  that  there  are  no  two  human 
spirits  alike.  The  characteristic  displays  of 
energetic  action  which  men  make  to  conform 
to,  or  overcome,  or  appropriate,  or  improve 
the  conditions  of  their  earthly  existence  be- 
token the  differences  which  are  innate  to  char- 
acter, which  inhere  in  the  spirit's  personality, 
A  philosopher  like  Plato,  a  preacher  like  Paul, 
an  orator  like  Cicero,  a  military  genius  like 
Napoleon,  an  explorer  of  the  globe  like  Hum- 
boldt, an  explorer  of  the  heavens  like  Newton, 
an  inventor  like  Morse,  a  statesman  like  Lin- 
coln— these  illustrate  characteristics  which  dif- 
ferentiate them  from  each  other  and  from  all 
others  of  their  fellow  men.  The  great  mass  of 
mankind    are    just  as  distinct  in  personality 


59 

from  one  another.  All  this  might  not  demon- 
strate that  personality  inheres  in  the  spirit 
were  it  not  confirmed  by  psychic  facts  to  which 
we  have  already  referred. 

One  of  these  is  that  even  some  who  have 
been  regarded  as  geniuses  have  given  proof  of 
powers  which  genins  will  not  explain.  Whate- 
ley,  the  great  logician,  whom  we  have  previ- 
ously quoted,  was  an  arithmetical  prodigy  as 
a  child.  From  the  age  of  six  to  nine  he 
could  do  the  most  difficult  sums  by  mental  cal- 
culation. This  was  before  he  had  received  any 
schooling.  ''When  I  went  to  school,"  he  him- 
self says,  "at  which  time  the  passion  wore  off, 
I  was  a  perfect  dunce  at  ciphering,  and  have 
continued  so  ever  since." 

Another  well  known  fact  is  that  some  who 
have  not  manifested  even  ordinary  mental  pow- 
ers, and  some  indeed  who  have  hardly  seemed 
to  rank  as  human  beings,  have  given  proof  of 
the  possession  of  powers  that  cannot  be  classed 
with  those  designed  for  or  necessary  to  the 
present  state  of  existence.     The  prodigies  we 


60 

liave  already  named  and  mam'  others  are  ex- 
amples. 

The  dual  mind  theory  fails  to  show  the  con- 
nection  between  such  phenomenal  facts  and 
man's  spirit  natm-e.  A  spiritual  body  affords 
an  explanation  of  the  facts  themselves  and 
their  relation  to  the  spirit's  personality.  The 
very  imperfections  of  body  and  mind  which  un- 
avoidable conditions  have  imposed  on  some 
human  beings  seem  to  prompt  the  spirit  to 
make  use  of  its  inner  body,  adapted  to  a  higher 
sphere,  and  thus  manifest  its  personality.  If 
man  were  only  mortal,  his  natural  body  would 
be  sufiicient  to  enable  him  to  exhibit  his  inner 
nature;  ])ut,  being  immortal,  his  spirit  requires 
a  more  wonderfully  endowed  material  frame  to 
enable  it  to  show  forth  its  powers,  and  the  oc- 
casional use  made  of  this  inner  spiritual  body 
manifests  the  real  ego,  the  real  personality, 
the  real  being.  The  spirit  is  not  something 
outside  of  man's  self — it  is  the  self,  the  only 
self — a  personal  being.    Furthermore,  it  is 

3.    A  Progressive  Being.     Why  should  it  be 


61 

thought  a  thing  incredible  that  the  human  spir- 
it begins  its  existence  with  as  limited  powers 
as  does  the  human  body?  No  fact  in  nature 
is  more  certain  than  that  the  body  is  developed 
from  a  single  germ  cell.  We  cannot  measure 
the  growth  of  the  spirit  as  we  can  that  of  the 
l)ody,  but  we  do  know  that  it  undergoes  an 
expansion  of  knowledge  and  power  which 
indicates  development  far  beyond  that  which 
the  present  life  requires.  Its  very  existence 
as  a  conscious  being  implies — 

1)  Progress  in  Knowledge.  This  world  is 
its  primary  school,  in  which  it  becomes  ac- 
quainted with  what  we  call  nature.  Its  natural 
body  is  the  medium  through  which  it  acquires 
the  knowledge  needed  to  fit  itself  to  its  tem- 
porary residence  on  earth.  Has  it  any  other 
means  of  acquiring  knowledge?  Whether  rev- 
elations from  the  spirit  world  can  be  made  to 
the  consciousness  of  the  human  spirit  without 
the  intervention  of  material  media  is  a  subject 
not  so  much  for  psychological  as  theological 
inquiry.    But  into  every  discussion  of  psycho- 


62 

logical  powers  the  question  obtrudes  itself  as 
to  whether  the  spirit  possesses  means  of  ob- 
taining knowledge  transcending  the  ordinary 
powers  for  which  it  has  use  in  this  world. 
^'The  objective  mind,"  says  Olston,  *' takes 
cognizance  of  the  world  of  things  about  it 
through  the  medium  of  the  fiv^e  special  senses. 
It  is  especially  fitted  to  cope  with  the  changing 
environment  of  this  life."  The  subjective 
mind,  however,  he  says,  ''has  resources  for  ob- 
taining information,  not  shared  by  the  objec- 
tive mind."  This  is  a  vague  assertion,  and  is 
mere  conjecture,  as  is  the  existence  of  a  sub- 
jective mind  separate  from  and  independent  of 
the  normal  mind.  It  is  a  roundabout,  enigmat- 
ical, inconclusive  method  of  accounting  for  the 
psychic  phenomena  which  certainly  prove  that 
the  spirit  has  means  of  acquiring  knowledge 
beyond  those  afforded  by  the  natural  body. 
What  are  those  means,  if  not  these  supposable 
powers  of  a  subjective  mind?  A  rational  an- 
swer, I  think,  is  that  they  are  the  superior  pow- 


63 


ers  of    perception    possessed  by  the  spiritual 
body. 

Even  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  falls  into 
the  error  of  explaining  dream  phenomena  by 
premising  that  "the  powers  of  the  senses  may 
undergo  an  intensification,  e.  g.,  the  powers  of 
appreciating  music  be  enormously  enhanced  in 
persons  indifferent  to  it."  It  is  a  psychologi- 
cal fact  that  in  sleep  the  sensatory  powers  are 
suspended  instead  of  being  intensified.  No  ex- 
planation of  unusual  psychic  phenomena  is 
satisfactory  which  is  based  on  either  the  bodily 
or  mental  mechanism  fitted  to  man's  present 
environment.  His  spirit  needs  a  body  adapted 
to  its  future  environment,  and  endowed  with 
powers  sufficient  to  meet  the  transcendent  re- 
quirements of  that  environment.  Prof.  Benja- 
min Pierce,  formerly  of  Harvard  University, 
says :  ' '  Body  and  matter  are  essential  to  man 's 
true  existence.  The  soul  which  leaves  this 
earthly  body  still  requires  incorporation.  The 
grandest  philosopher  who  has  ever  speculated 
upon    this    theme    has  told  us  in  his  sublime 


64 

epistle  that  there  are  celestial  bodies  as  well 
as  bodies  terrestrial. ' '  Further,  in  speaking  of 
the  increased  capacity  for  perception  and  in- 
formation which  the  celestial  bodies  may  pos- 
sess, Prof.  Pierce  says:  "There  is  ample  room 
for  more  than  forty  new  senses,  each  of  which 
might  have  its  own  peculiar  effect  upon  the 
nerves  of  the  observer."  Speaking  of  hearing 
and  sight,  he  says:  "Auditory  vibration  may  not 
be  ofteuer  than  ten  in  a  second,  or  they  may  be 
as  many  as  twenty  thousand.  Visual  vibi*a- 
tions,  on  the  contrary,  are  not  less  than  four 
hundred  millions  of  millions  in  a  second,  and 
may  be  as  many  as  eight  hundred  millions  of 
millions.  Between  these  two  limits  what  a  vast 
range  of  untried  perceptions!"  According  to 
Prof.  Jos.  Grinnell,  Director  of  the  California 
Museum  of  Vertebrate  Zoology,  the  sense  of 
hearing  is  possessed  by  bats  in  a  degree  far 
surpassing  that  of  human  beings.  "We  can  be 
pretty  sure,"  he  says,  that  bats  hunt  their  in- 
sect food  by  sound.  Even  the  wing-strokes  of 
a  tiny  miller  must  be  distinctly  audible  to  the 


65 

Imt  which  snaps  it  up  so  iiiierriiigh'.    And  the 
droning  of  a  June  beetle  must  sound  to  the  bat 
as  penetrating  as  the  roar  of  an  aeroplane  does 
to  us. ' '    Prof.  R.  B.  Abbott  of  the  University  of 
California  has  invented  an  instrument  which 
amplifies  sound  from  a  hundred  to  ten  thous- 
and times.     Some  of  the  faintest  sounds,  such 
as  a  feather  falling  on  the  floor,  are  made  quite 
discernible.       By  the  use  of  this  instrument 
heart  beats  can  be  recorded  on  a  phonograpli, 
and  the  sound  of  a  leaking  heart  can  be  heard 
plainly.    Not  only  may  the  ordinary  five  senses 
possessed  by  human  beings  be  thus  amplified, 
as  thev  are  in  manv  mere  animals,  but  that 
other  senses  may  and  do  exist  in  animal  organ- 
izations is  an  almost  indisputable  fact.     Says 
the  National  Geographic  Magazine,  one  of  our 
best  scientific  authorities:    "In  seeking  an  ex- 
planation of  the  mystery  of  birds'  ability  to 
find  their  way  in  migrating,  many  are  inclined 
to   reject  the   one-time   sufficient   answer,   'in- 
stinct,' in  favor  of  a  more  recent  theory,  the 
possession  by  birds  of  another  faculty,  the  so- 


66 

called  *  sense  of  direction.'  This  added  sense 
enables  birds  to  return  to  a  known  locality 
with  no  other  aid  than  an  ever-present  knowl- 
edge of  the  right  direction."  We  see  then  to 
what  a  wonderful  degree  what  we  may  call  sen- 
satory  perception  may  be  raised  in  the  spirit- 
ual body.  Mental  perceptions  and  conceptions 
will  be  multiplied  correspondingly.  All  of  the 
faculties  we  now  attribute  to  man  may  be  ex- 
panded and  harmonized  so  as  to  perceive  truth 
with  infallible  exactness.  The  rational  faculty 
may  still  lead  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  but 
imagination  and  memorj^  will  be  alike  efficient 
and  perfect.  Says  Romanes:  ''Reason  is  not 
the  only  attribute  of  man,  nor  is  it  the  only 
faculty  which  he  habitually  employs  in  the  as- 
certainment of  truth."  Imagination,  which 
Wilkie  Collins  calls  "the  noblest  of  the  human 
faculties,"  seems  to  play  but  little  practical 
])art  in  man's  achievements  in  this  world,  al- 
though some  accord  to  it  at  least  the  initiative 
of  most  great  discoveries.  Its  powers  are  oc- 
casionally made  manifest,  as  in  the  cases  of 


67 

some  great  poets  or  musicians,  who,  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  spirit,  have  exercised  them  in 
marvelous  manner.    Thus  Mozart,  speaking  of 
his  method  of  composing,  said,  '*Nor  do  I  hear 
in  my  imagination  the  parts  successively,  but 
I  hear  them,  as  it  were,  all  at  once. ' '   Beethoven 
was  stone-deaf,  yet  created  harmonies  which  he 
himself  could  not  hear.    The  reasoning  faculty 
seemed   altogether  absent  in  Blind  Tom,  but 
his  imagination  alone  enabled  him  to  compre- 
hend and  give  expression  to  principles  of  mel- 
ody and  harmony  and  to  improvise  music  equal 
to  that  of  the  masters.     To  make  individuality 
consist  in  the  rational  faculty  alone  is  to  dehu- 
manize a  being  possessing  such  wonderful  pow- 
ers.   While  the  rational  and  imaginative  facul- 
ties may  be  perfected  to  fit  them  for  the  acquire- 
ment of  knowledge  in   another  sphere,  mem- 
ory will    add  to  the  spirit's   progress  in    that 
higher  realm  by  the  expansion  of  its  receptive 
and  retentive  powers.     No  bounds  can  be  set 
to  this  progress  until  it  has  exhausted  the  reve- 
lations and  resources  of  this  enlarged  sphere, 


68 

and  then  it  may  be  translated  to  a  larger  sphere 
still. 

2)  The  spirit's  growth  will  not  be  confined 
to  knowledge,  however.  It  will  progress  in 
power.  It  needs  but  little  mental  acumen  to 
discern  the  fact  that  the  great  incentive  to 
man 's  physical  and  mental  energies  in  his  pres- 
ent state  is  the  mastery  of  the  forces  of  nature. 
And  it  needs  but  little  reflection  to  convince 
ourselves  that,  invested  with  a  bodily  and  men- 
tal organism,  this  will  be  the  spirit's  employ- 
ment in  a  higher  existence.  Holy  Writ  declares 
this  to  be  the  design  and  object  of  man's  crea- 
tion: "Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion 
over  the  works  of  thy  hands."  (Ps.  8:  6.)  To 
overcome  space,  to  ov^ercome  material  forces, 
and  to  develop  for  his  own  use  and  enjoyment 
material  resources,  gives  employment  to  man's 
powers  on  earth.  If  matter  as  well  as  spirit 
is  immortal,  we  can  conceive  of  no  other  em- 
ployment for  his  powers  in  another  state  of 
being,  however  enlarged  those  powers  may  be. 

a)    If  the    desire  to    overcome    space    now 


69 

prompts  man  to  invent  means  to  traverse  not 
only  land  and  sea,  but  the  aerial  regions  as 
well,  how  much  greater  an  incentive  to  his 
powers  of  motion  will  be  the  planetary  spaces 
which  will  challenge  them  in  a  larger  sphere? 
'^The  desire  to  fly  like  a  bird  is  inborn  in  our 
race,"  says  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb.  The  popu- 
lar notion  that  the  spirit,  entirely  released 
from  the  body,  will  be  capable  of  traversing 
space  with  the  rapidity  of  thought  is  a  fiction 
of  the  imagination.  The  spirit  is  finite  and  ca- 
pable only  of  finite  performances.  Its  actions 
in  a  future  life  as  in  this  will  be  limited  by 
means  and  not  rendered  illimitable  by  mira- 
cles. There  is  no  warrant  in  religion  or  sci- 
ence for  supposing  that  it  will  ever  exist  in  a 
disembodied  state.  "You  cannot  suppose  a 
naked  spirit  moving  about  without  a  bodily 
garment — no  creed  teaches  that,"  says  Dr.  S. 
Weir  Mitchell;  and  Edgar  Allan  Poe  gave  ex- 
pression to  a  great  truth  when  he  said,  "Mind 
unincorporate  is  God."     It  requires  too  great 


70 

a  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  say  with  Sterne: 

"For  of  the  soul  the  body  form  doth  take, 
For  soul  is  form,  and  doth  the  body  make : " 

or,  even  with  Schiller,  that  "it  is  the  soul  that 
builds  itself  a  body."  Alfred  Russell  Wallace, 
provisional  evolutionist  as  he  was,  held  that 
the  natural  human  body  must  have  been  cre- 
ated by  a  special  act  of  God.  Creative  power 
inheres  only  in  the  Infinite  Spirit,  and  only  to 
the  power  that  created  the  human  spirit  can 
we  attribute  the  creation  of  the  spiritual  body 
with  which  it  is  invested.  This  body  is  the 
soul-envelope  of  the  spirit,  a  refined  material 
organism  completely  adapted  to  its  immortal 
needs,  and  in  this  sense  Sterne's  words  are 
true,  "The  soul  is  form."  "We  can  hardly 
imagine,"  says  Balfour  Stewart,  "the  freedom 
of  motion  implied  in  life  to  exist  apart  from  ma- 
chinery possessed  of  very  great  delicacy  of  con- 
struction." The  spiritual  body  is  composed 
of  matter  so  refined  and  so  delicately  organ- 
ized that  it  will  possess  a  freedom  of  mo- 
tion   in    an    ethereal    atmosphere     o  f     which 


71 

we  can  have  n  o  conception.  Attenuated 
as  that  atmosphere  may  be,  i  t  will  still 
offer  the  resistance  of  friction  to  any  ma- 
terial body.  Paradoxical  as  it  seems,  it  is  an 
indisputable  fact  that  the  more  impalpable 
and  invisible  is  the  form  in  which  matter  ex- 
ists, the  more  is  it  invested  with  power  to  over- 
come the  resistance  offered  by  grosser  forms  of 
matter.  Electricity  illustrates  this.  It  pene- 
trates the  atmosphere  of  earth  with  a  force 
which  is  almost  irresistible.  So,  with  more 
than  lightning-like  rapidity  will  the  spiritual 
body  traverse  the  vast  realm  which  will  be 
open  to  the  spirit  when  it  takes  its  flight  from 
this  world. 

b)  Combined  with  this  power  to  overcome 
space  will  be  the  power  to  overcome  material 
forces  in  general.  Science  tells  us  that  there 
are  forms  of  matter  capable  of  penetrating, 
without  injury  to  themselves,  all  other  forms, 
gaseous,  fluid,  or  solid.  The  spiritual  body 
will  probably  possess  this  power.  No  blazing 
sun  or  glacial  covered  planet  would  prevent  its 


passage  if  either  should  obstruct  the  path  its 
mission  might  require  it  to  take.  We  can  say 
but  little  about  this,  but  more,  perhaps,  rela- 
tive to  the  progress  in  power  which  the  spirit 
will  make  in  the  future, 

c)  As  to  developing  material  resources. 
That  the  human  spirit  should  spend  its  future 
state  in  indolent  gratification  is  itself  an  idle 
conception,  befitting  only  the  minds  of  those 
who,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  ''judge 
themselves  unworthy  of  everlasting  life." 
There  will  be  no  necessity  for  toil  such  as  earth- 
ly conditions  make  necessary,  but  what  fields 
of  exploration,  what  opportunities  for  inven- 
tion, for  utilizing  new  elements  and  forces,  for 
adding  to  the  enjoyments  of  a  new  life,  will 
that  celestial  sphere  open  to  the  spirit  ''ripe 
for  exploits  and  mighty  enterprises"!  The 
ancients  taught  that  there  were  but  four  un- 
decomj)osable  elements  of  nature — earth,  air, 
fire,  and  water.  Modern  science  has  demon- 
strated that  none  of  these  are  elemental,  and 
that  there    are    nearly  a  hundred  simple    ele- 


73 

ments  entering  into  the  composition  of  materi- 
al tilings  as  we  know  them.  In  all  likelihood 
there  are  hundreds  more  in  the  forms  of  matter 
composing  our  astral  system,  which  will  give 
exercise  to  all  the  potentialities  of  the  spirit- 
ual body  when  it  becomes  the  medium  of  the 
spirit's  activities.  What  achievements  it  may 
then  accomplish  we  cannot  conceive,  but  its 
progress  in  power  will  undoubtedly  equal  its 
progress  in  knowledge. 

4.  Man's  spirit  nature  makes  him  a  Moral 
Being. 

1)  In  its  earthly  environment  the  human 
spirit,  as  a  moral  being,  sustains  peculiar  re- 
lations to  existing  conditions.  Leaving  out  all 
questions  concerning  its  relations  to  an  Infin- 
ite Being  and  responsibilities  and  duties  grow- 
ing out  of  such  relations,  it  must  nevertheless 
manifest  a  regard  or  disregard  for  moral  as 
well  as  natural  law.  It  is  but  one  of  a  race  of 
beings,  each  of  whom,  by  virtue  of  his  very 
existence,  is  invested  with  the  right  to  "life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."     This 


74 

self-evident  truth  makes  justice  obligatory. 
The  fact  that  this  obligation  is  violated  by  the 
many  only  adds  nobility  to  the  spirit  which 
recognizes  and  complies  with  it.  The  difficulty 
in  conforming  to  moral  law  but  makes  such 
conformity  contribute  to  moral  growth.  What- 
ever may  be  the  causes  of  the  conflicting  cir- 
cumstances which  create  this  difficulty,  it  is 
evident  that  they  tend  t  o  develop  moral 
strength  rather  than  moral  weakness.  If  there 
is  such  a  law  of  being  as  "the  survival  of  the 
fittest,"  it  is  certainly  applicable  here. 

"We  may  win  by  toil  endurance; 

Saintly  fortitude  by  pain; 

By  sickness  patience;  faith  and  trust  by  fear; 

But  the  great  stimulus  that  stirs  to  life, 

And  crowds  to  generous  development 

Each  chastened  power  and  passion  of  the  soul, 

Is  the  temptation  of  the  soul  to  sin, 

Resisted,  and  reconquered,  evermore." 

That  the  spirit  is  essentially  a  moral  being 
is  strikingly  confirmed  by  the  most  singular 
psychic  phenomena  attending  a  hypnotic  state. 
The  Encyclopedia  Britannica  is  authority  for 
the  statement  that  "when  a  patient  is  com- 
pletely hypnotized  his  movements,  his  senses, 


75 

liis  ideas,  and,  to  some  extent,  even  the  organic- 
processes  over  which  he  has  no  voluntary  con- 
trol, become  more  or  less  completely  subject  to 
the  suggestions  of  the  operator. ' '  And  yet,  on 
the  same  authority,  "Post-hypnotic  acts  will  be 
performed  only  if  not  repugnant  to  the  normal 
self,"  proving  that  the  spirit  possesses  an  in- 
nate moral  nature.  Commands  involving  fool- 
ish and  even  hazardous  acts  will  be  performed, 
but  it  will  revolt  against  those  suggesting  un- 
just or  unclean  actions,  unless  the  subject  is 
one  given  to  such  conduct. 

This  innate  moral  nature  has  confirmation 
from  a  more  general  source  also.  Not  only 
does  a  sense  of  injustice  prevail  among  man- 
kind, whether  obeyed  or  not,  but  despite  the  ex- 
isting conditions  of  injustice,  the  contentions 
growing  out  of  ambition  and  avarice,  and  the 
apparent  insuperable  barriers  of  racial  divis- 
ions, there  is  a  consensus  of  conviction  among 
the  inhabitants  of  earth  as  to  human  brother- 
hood which  can  be  born  of  nothing  else  than 
a  psychological  moral  persuasion. 


76 

The  peculiar  relations  which  the  human  spir- 
it thus  sustains  to  present  conditions  are  in 
themselves  an  indication  if  not  an  evidence 
that  it  is 

2)  Destined  to  sustain  greatly  changed  re- 
lations to  future  conditions.  Victor  Hugo 
makes  one  of  his  self-conceited  and  skeptical 
characters  say,  "As  for  man  having  a  future 
elsewhere,  up  there,  down  there,  somewhere,  I 
do  not  believe  a  syllable  of  it. "  A  man  is  lack- 
ing in  either  intelligence  or  sincerity  who  can 
think  or  speak  of  a  future  state  of  being  in 
terms  of  frivolity.  There  is  no  incentive  which 
appeals  to  the  human  spirit  with  such  force  as 
that  presented  by  the  thought  of  immortality. 
What  may  be  the  conditions  of  an  immortal 
state  our  limited  faculties  can  neither  discover 
nor  apprehend.  A  revelation  from  the  other 
world  can  be  made  only  in  figures,  which,  even 
if  divinely  inspired,  can  but  dimly  represent 
realties.  There  are  certain  lines,  however,  on 
which  we  can  speak  with  intelligence. 

We  can  affirm  with  the  y)ositive  assurance  of 


77 

conscious  conviction  that  the  normal  condition 
of  the  material  and  moral  universe  is  one  of 
order.  It  is  manifest  that  without  this  there 
could  be  neither  one  nor  the  other.  Order  im- 
plies law,  or  rather,  order  is  law.  "It  is  de- 
sirable t  o  remember, ' '  says  Huxley,  * '  that 
which  is  very  often  forgotten,  that  the  laws  of 
nature  are  not  the  causes  of  the  order  of  na- 
ture, but  only  our  own  way  of  stating  as  much 
as  we  have  made  out  of  that  order." 
It  is  evident  that  the  spirit,  even  when  clothed 
with  a  body  endowed  with  wonderful  powers, 
will  be  subject  to  the  conditions  imposed  by  the 
order  of  the  material  system  it  will  inhabit  in 
another  state — that  is,  as  we  would  now  ex- 
press it,  it  will  be  subject  to  natural  law. 

In  that  future  state,  as  in  the  present,  there 
will  be  demands  made  upon  the  spirit-being 
higher  than  those  imposed  by  natural  law. 
There,  as  here,  there  will  of  necessity  be  a  so- 
cial order.  This  world  is  a  scene  of  social  dis- 
order. Whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  this,  one 
of  two   things  must  happen — social  harmony 


78 

must  be  brought  about  by  moral  improvement, 
or  the  race  must  perish.  The  one  thing  which 
is  tending  to  produce  a  condition  of  harmony 
is  not  knowledge,  not  invention,  not  the  devel- 
opment of  material  resources,  not  the  multi- 
plication of  means  of  alleviating  the  sufferings 
and  adding  to  the  comforts  of  an  earthly  life, 
but  the  growth  of  the  feeling  of  brotherhood, 
promoted  by  the  exercise  of  the  elemental  emo- 
tions of  the  spirit.  "An  emotion  is  but  a  frame 
of  mind,"  says  Olston,  "a  series  of  mental 
processes."  Making  the  mind  the  total  of  per-, 
sonality  leads  to  this  error.  "Neither  our  aes- 
thetic emotions  nor  our  moral  sentiments  are 
the  product  of  ratiocination,"  says  Arthur  J. 
Balfour.  The  emotions  are  deeper  than 
the  mind.  Feeling  is  not  a  mental  quality.  "I 
have  feelings,"  says  Lyman  Abbott,  "but  my 
pen  cannot  and  will  not  write  feelings;  nay,  my 
heart  has  no  mind  that  can  coin  them  into 
words."  The  elemental  emotions  of  the  spirit 
may  be  summed  up  in  one  word,  love.  Love  is 
the  life  of  harmony.     It  unites  the  sexes,  it  is 


79 

the  bond  of  the  family,  it  cements  friendship, 
it  makes  friends  of  enemies,  it  forgives  the  er- 
ring, it  seeks  the  common  good,  it  knows  no  bar- 
riers of  prejudice,  of  caste,  of  tribal,  national 
or  racial  divisions.  It  is  the  one  and  only  force 
which  can  master  all  the  other  forces  of  the 
human  spirit  and  finally  reduce  to  order  the 
confused  and  conflicting  social  conditions  ex- 
isting in  this  world.  It  is  evident  that  the  spir- 
it is  here  undergoing  a  moral  discipline  which 
may  not  only  qualify  it  to  contribute  to  the 
improvement  of  these  present  conditions,  but 
also  to  adapt  itself  to  the  changed  conditions 
of  the  higher  sphere  it  is  destined  to  occupy. 

As  we  have  already  said,  the  particular  con- 
ditions of  a  future  state  are  unknown  to  us,  bnt 
"•'eason  combines  with  consciousness  to  assure 
us  that  its  normal  condition  in  general  is  one 
of  order,  making  the  spirit's  environment  one 
of  uninterrupted  peace  and  harmony.  As  the 
one  law  of  gravitation  will  preserve  the  har- 
mony of  the  material  system  in  which  it  will 
find  itself,  so  the  one  law  of  love  will  preserve 


80 

social  harmony.     No  written  decrees  will  be 

needed  to  regulate  the  intercourse  or  pursuits 

of   the   inhabitants   of  those   celestial   regions 

any  more  than  they  are  needed  to  control  the 

movements  of  the  spheres.     Love  will  reign 

supreme.     Knowledge  may  be  increased  to  an 

immeasurable  extent,  the  imagination  may 
take   flights     o  f    inconceivable   length      and 

breadth  and  height  and  depth,  memory  may  ac- 
cumulate a  store  of  incalculable  treasures,  art 
may  find  exalted  expression  in  heavenly  sights 
and  sounds,  but  love  will  out-measure  them  all, 
love  will  appropriate  them  all,  love  will  use 
them  all,  love  will  transfigure  them  all.  And 
even  the  will,  now  the  regnant  power  in  man, 
will  submit  to  love  and  own  its  sway,  for  love 
can  never  go  wrong.  And  so,  all  the  powers 
which  give  nobility  to  man's  nature  will  be 
crowned  by  this  resplendent  attribute  of  the 
spirit 

"While  life  and  thought  and  being  last, 
Or  immortality  endures." 


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61;^   Some  psychic 
FRQts     problems 


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